Sort Array on Specific Variable

I'm trying to sort an array by a specific field in the array. I can't get this work at all.

Here's a sample line in the array named @results.
<tr><td><a href=mailto:name1@myemail.com>Name 1</a></td><td>5834</td><td align=right>+1 510-555-5555</td></tr>

I want to sort on the field "Name1". So I know I have to split that one out. So here's my code to split out that field.

=================
foreach $line (sort ({ (split("/\>/", $a))[3] <=> (split("/\/", $b))[3] } @results))
{
print "$line";
}
=================

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Guyle Taber
gtaber@geoworks.com

Here's a sort of generalized chunk of code you can use to do that, and used
in lots of other situations, too.


#You have an array. Each line of the array is 1 record.
#The &error() returns info to the user if the open fails. You write this.
open (CUSTFILE, "$db") or &error('Error opening database file');
@lines = <CUSTFILE>;
close(CUSTFILE);

#Decide which field you want to sort on. Start counting at 0.
#You want the third:
$field = 2;

#What separators your fields? Pretend it's a space. Might be ||.
$sep = ' ';

#Use Perl sort, giving it a flexible sorting subroutine
#that uses the values of $sep and $field to figure out what the field
#delimiter is and which field to use (0,1,2,...)
@lines = sort byDictd @lines;

sub byDictField
{
(split(/$sep/, lc($a)))[$field] cmp (split(/$sep/, lc($b)))[$field];
#cmp for comparing words
#dictionary order, ignoring case (w/o lc(), get ASCII order)
}

sub byNumField
{
(split(/$sep/, $a))[$field] <=> (split(/$sep/, $b))[$field];
#<=> for comparing numbers as values, notwords
}

Pretty flexible, and for many programs, it means you write the sort routine
once and just set $sep and $field as needed. I dunno about you, but I have
cases where records are returned sorted by date, by last name, by title,
and all sort of crap.

Hope this helps

Mickalo